Of all of the
Joysticks Atari evermade
over the years they were in business,
our two
least favorite
Atari
controllers were the
7800 CX24 Slim line Deluxe Joystick (sometimes called the Atari Proline
Joystick) and the ill fated Atari Space Age Joystick, which had an internal flex
circuit problem from the start
and caused
it to be dropped by Atari very fast. Now Atari Space Age Joysticks are a very
rare Atari collector item.

The main
reason why the Atari CX24 duel fire button Joystick was not one of our favorite Atari controllers
made, was the left, right fire button PCB’s and Main X / Y PCB would fail very
fast. 1st the left and
right
fire
buttons PCBs would fail and second the main X / Y PCB would fail next with any
kind of normal use. You think this next
generation
(after the original Atari CX40 Joystick was designed) Atari Joystick would have
been better designed
and
all of
the problems Atari had with the CX40 Joysticks, would have been fixed on the
newer generation dual
fire
button 7800 Atari CX24 Joystick design. But the basic fault again like the
original Atari CX40 Joystick was the same PCB technology was used to design the
internal CX24 PCB board and the small three leg dome contacts
which seem to have a higher failure rate than the
many different styles and shapes of dome contacts used on the earlier CX40 Joystick PCB’s.
Basically the Atari CX24 Joystick was 1st shipped with the Atari CX7800 consoles
and toward the end sold as a separate Atari Joystick (left hand picture).
So the second generation Atari made CX24 Joystick design did
not go thru the many many changes and attempts by Atari Engineering to correct
its known problems, that they did do on the earlier Atari made CX40 Joystick over
its 20 to 25 year
life cycle of all of the Atari 2600, 2600A and 2600JR consoles (supplied with
CX40 Joysticks) made. Best
Electronics is the only company in the world to fix the original Atari CX24
Joystick internal design problems with 2015 technology and turn the guaranteed to fail Atari stock CX24 Joystick into the
a Gold lifetime joystick (like we did on the
Atari CX40
Gold lifetime Joystick) and give
it a brand new lease on life. Now all Atari users can reach into the old
box of non working Atari Joysticks, pull out the old non
working CX24 Joystick
and turn it into another Best upgraded Atari lifetime
Gold controller.

Now the good
news on
the Atari CX24 Joystick basic internal design. Atari did make some internal
improvements on the internal X / Y plastic actuator (like the CX40 inner white
handle) which made them last longer and the left and right orange fire button
design with its conical fire button springs. Although the new CX24 fire button
center pin design will allow the CX24 Joystick user to put more internal
pressure (compared to the orange CX40 Fire button design) on the tops of the
CX24 fire button dome contacts, but with the Best New design Gold
CX24 PCB boards, we feel the new larger 4 leg dome contact size with tactical
feed back click will make up for any new CX24 fire button design drawbacks. On
the old Atari CX24 fire button dome contacts, some did have a very mild click
noise but no tactical bounce back feature, but many times you could not tell
when the fire button had fully compressed the dome contact and the Atari CX24
Joystick users would apply more and more pressure on the orange fire button
which would cause the 3 leg dome contacts to fail early.

Best describes the Atari CX24 Joystick upgraded with Bests
lifetime all
Gold
board set as a left or right handed type of Atari Joystick with
very wide surface area comfortable fire buttons and mushroom
control handle that has a very short throw / precision travel range with fast action.

Atari CX24 Joystick, CX78 Joypad Information tip:
On about 25 to 35% of the Atari 7800 games made, requires an Atari CX24 Joystick
or Atari CX78 Joypad with their left and right Independent fire button functions for different
7800 games to properly play those games. On Atari 2600 Joystick games
the Atari CX24 Joystick or Atari CX78 Joypad duel fire buttons will act as a single
fire button function like on the original Atari CX40 Joystick.

Using the
Atari Engineering basic CX24 PCB board design information and what Best has learned
from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Best
exclusive CX40 Joystick Gold
Lifetime upgrade PCB boards, Best has applied this Atari CX40 Joystick PCB
knowledge on producing a new set of upgraded Atari CX24 Joystick Gold
lifetime new internal PCB board set. Although several new Engineering problems
showed up that are unique to the CX24 Joystick New board set design and required
the brand new X / Y punch tooling (exact copy of the CX24 Joystick board set)
had be modified at an extra expense ($$$) over the original bew tooling cost, to get
the changes Best required. One of the many changes done to the original
CX24 main X / Y design, was the components (2 resistors and ferrite RF bead)
that are soldered to the PCB board, had to have there locations moved so that 3
of the dome contact cavities would be sealed from the outside air exposure.
On the second prototype CX24 Main X / Y Best received, we spotted a potential
problem that might show up years down line of normal use. The 3 larger
diameter dome
contacts at the 9 AM, 12 Noon and 3 PM dome contacts locations were so close to the
outside edges (a fixed Atari X / Y PCB design problem that could not be corrected
with a larger X Y PCB board, because of no extra free space within the
CX24 joystick inner case space) it was felt that the clear square dome contact
holding plastic cavity left, top and right
very thin barrier walls might fail after 6 to 8+ years of use and allow those 3 dome contacts
start to walk over the left, top or right sides of the CX24 PCB board edges.
One of the final Engineering changes
Best required our PCB manufacture to do (which required a third prototype board
samples to be made) was to add to the top 3M clear plastic cover (again required a new
tooling charge) sheet three extra rectangular shaped clear extra ears / wings
(at the 9 AM, 12 Noon and 3 PM dome contact locations). These clear wings
are folded over the edge (9, 12, 3 locations) of the PCB board and attached to
back side of the X / Y board under each dome contact. So years down line,
if the thin clear square dome cavity side walls (9, 12, 3 locations) should fail, the
extra 3 rectangular clear ears / wings folded over the edges of the PCB board and
attached to
the back side of the X / Y PCB will block the 3 dome contacts moving past / over the
edges (9 left, 12 up and 3 right) of the X / Y PCB board. On the final X /
Y 3rd generation prototype samples, during the long life cycles and elevated
heat tests, we noticed that the 3 clear ears / wings were slowly pulling off the
back side of the X / Y PCB board. We told our PCB board manufacture that
the clear glue they used on the top side of the PCB board to hold down the clear
3M
top cover was not strong enough to hold down the clear ears / wings to the back
side of the X / Y PCB board. They came up with a stronger glue to fix the
flapping ear problem on the back side of the main X / Y PCB board, but it does not
have the same crystal clear look as glue used on the top side of the PCB board.
As extra insurance, a second larger rectangular clear cover (3) was glued over
each of the 3 folded over ears to add extra glue bonding surface to hold down
the original 3 folded over clear ears to the back side of the X /Y PCB board.

Danny V. of FL Dan purchased one reconditioned Atari CX24 Joystick
Upgraded with Bests New 2016 CX24 Lifetime Gold
board set. "I absolutely love the CX-24 Gold upgrade joystick! The
CX-24 is actually a pleasure to use now! I will be buying an additional
CX-24 soon. Good job!"

Stephen W. of WAStephen ordered one of Bests reconditioned
CX24 Joysticks upgraded with Bests
CX24 Goldlifetime PCB sets.
"I received the joystick today, thanks for the fast shipping! It's so much
better than the original."

Chris T. of FLChris said he was very very happy
he found the Best Atari Web site. He placed his 1st Atari order for a Best
Reconditioned / Upgraded Atari CX24 Gold
lifetime Joystick, a Best CX78 Composite Video upgrade, a Best 7800 Euro OS
upgrade, 3 new Atari 7800 games, new Atari 7800 Translucent Dust cover and the
Best Rev. 10 all Atari Catalog."I
placed an order on Friday, and I received it Monday. I cannot believe how quick
the turn around was. The BEST CX24 joystick is amazing! I will have to replace
the other one now. Everything I ordered came just as expected. I am so glad I
found you! Kudos to this company. You have a new customer. Great Job!"

One by one each problem on the Best new CX24 board set was fixed and in couple cases
caused new design problems, many many Engineering print revisions later, new
samples made again and again, pictures E-Mailed back and forth and after 6+
Months of solid work with our PCB manufacture on this new Atari CX24 project, we have
finally worked all of the Engineering design problems to the Best Gold
CX24
Joystick new Internal board set that meets Bests very very high Atari quality
and design standards. We are happy to release Bests latest Atari CX24 Joystick
controller Gold
lifetime Internal board set upgrade.

· Stronger
Larger / Longer life, state of the art 4 Leg all Gold
Plated Dome Contacts(6X), each with a built in tactical feed
back feature with an audible click when the dome
contact is pressed and released. The stock
CX24 smaller
three leg dome contacts, would collapse flat, would flip from concave to convex
shape on the PCB boards, loose the very little tactical feed back click sound.
They would also walk
around all over the top surface of the PCB board and no longer make proper
contact with the mating small round circuit trace under the dome contact.

·The New 2015
Best designed all Gold
CX24 upgrade board
set (1
all Gold
main X / Y and 2 match sets of Gold
fire buttons PCB’s) uses many of the same Upgraded / New features of the very
popular Lifetime Best Gold
CX40 Joystick PCB boards.

·The Best long
life Gold
dome contacts have a flat surface across the top of the dome contact, which
means a 20X enlarged Gold
plated contact surface under each dome contact.
The old stock CX24 smaller 3 leg domes contacts have a very small inward dimple
in the top dome contact, which means it had a very small round
dimple contact surface area under the old CX24 dome contact with the very small
mating contact center trace on the PCB board

·Close to 200%
Larger Gold
Plated mating contact square trace surface area under each Gold
plated Dome contact
(compared to the stock Atari CX24 very
small dome contact mating round trace
surface size)
on the new Best CX24 PCB board
set

·The larger 4 leg fire button Gold
dome
contacts allows you to position your fire button fingers on any position /
location on the large orange fire surface and still get the same loud fire
button click sound and
tactical
feed back thru the fire button surface.As the stock Atari CX24 fire button
smaller 3 leg dome contacts failed, you had to position your fire button fingers
directly over the center of the larger orange fire button only to get the
fire button to work properly

·
Each of the 6 larger Gold
plated larger dome contacts are set into a clear square dome cavity / cut out
(clear middle plastic under sheet, that prevents the dome contact from walking
around the top surface of the PCB board) and a second clear top sheet over the
complete surface of the PCB to prevent the Gold
dome contacts from walking around the top of the PCB during use. This is
proven technology on the 10+ year Lifetime Best CX40 Gold
PCB
board design. Dome contact movement (under the single clear
plastic top cover) was one of the major
failure modes on the original Atari CX24 PCB fire and X / Y PCB board design

·New State of
the Art 3M
Brand Polyester clear top covering over all 3 PCB’s

·On the Gold
Main CX24 PCB Board, each of the 4 internal dome contact square dome contact
cavities are sealed from the outside air / moisture and are interconnected together
via escape air channels to prevent an internal air pressure increase / over
pressure in each
dome contact square cavity when one dome contact is pushed down. This
prevents the top clear covering from puffing off / lifting off / pulling off the
tops of the dome contacts during contact actuations. The small Best CX24 Gold
fire button PCB's also have dual "T"
shaped escape air chambers.On
the old original Atari CX24 Joystick PCB, only had a single clear top plastic
sheet that covered the dome contacts as it failed (pulled off the top of the
dome contact and PCB board top surface), it exposed all 4 X / Y, 3 leg small dome
contacts to the open air. When the old CX24 3 leg dome contacts were
pressed down, the trapped higher air pressure under each dome contact caused the
clear top covering to pull off the top of the dome contacts allowing them to
move around the PCB board and would also allow water / moisture (which would
corrode the mating copper fire button trace) and foreign materials under the
dome contact, which again cause the dome contact to not make proper contact the
mating PCB tracecontact.

·New Etched in
Color code wiring pin outs on connecting tabs / fingers on the bottom end of the
Best Main X / Y CX24 upgrade PCB. On the old Atari CX24 X /
Y PCB’s did not
have wire color codes etched into the connecting fingers.

3rd and Final
version CX24 main prototype

PCB board
sample.
You can see the air escape

channel
(left lower bottom) between dome

contacts cavity. Production version will
have

a light yellow
PCB board material compared to

light green prototype PCB material.

3rd and Final version CX24 Fire Button prototype PCB with the

2 new internal "T" shaped air
escape channels added.
You can also see the

dome contact clear square
retention / cavity walls. Production version will have

Once you upgrade your old Atari CX24 Joystick
with the Best CX24 upgrade
Gold PCB board set, you will notice
an acoustical sound change. Because of the internal design of the CX24
Orange fire buttons, they act like a speaker cone and takes the normal 4 leg
dome contact audible click sound when the dome is pushed down and released and
seems it amplify the volume of the click sound. If you did not know
better, you would say it sounds like a high grade mechanical switch click.
Yet the same exact 4 leg
Best
Gold dome contacts on the CX24 main Gold
X / Y PCB have a more muffled sound out click but with the same tactical
mechanical click feed back feeling to your fingers. This is because of the
CX24 X / Y dome contact plastic + actuator
(directly presses on the top of the Gold 4 leg dome contacts) and
metal center shaft design, suppresses the normal 4 leg dome contact loud audible click
sound.

Hear are some short audio sound bytes / clips (all
recordings were done at the same record volume level and same distance away from
the microphone) of a stock Atari CX24 fire button being pressed and released
over and over. Next is the New Best CX24 Gold
fire button being
pressed and released. To
get a very good comparison of CX24 Fire button sounds differences, click on the
Stock CX24 fire button sound button below for a few seconds, then click on the
Best Gold
CX24 fire button. You may
have open your Media player 1st.In Firefox
browser, down load each sound file type, then look in / open your down load file (down pointing arrow).
Next click on the
WAV or MP3 file. Then quickly click on the other fire button sound file to
compare them to each other.

You
will hear the stock CX24 fire button sound has a muffled sound with a single click
sound. On the Best Gold fire button, you will hear a louder and sharper
1st click (as the dome contact is depressed) sound and a very quick second softer click sound (Gold
dome contact being released with the tactual feed
back click / kick back feature). To be up
front, the exact click sound you will get out of an old used stock CX24 fire button
dome contact being
pressed and released, can vary from No Sound (failed
dome contact) to a slightly loader click sound
you can hear with the above WAV / MP3 files. This sound variance is caused by the 5 to 7
different brands / styles of 3 leg dome contacts used over the years on the
stock Atari CX24 fire button PCBsand
the state of early failure (inverted contact, flattened contact, contact that
has moved position on the PCB board) on those old dome
contacts.

Because of the
high cost for the new punch tooling (and the upgrade / rework of the new
tooling) required to make the Main X / Y and Fire button
PCB’s, center clear middle plastic sheet (again new upgrade changes to the
original design) with dome square holding cavities for
the Main X / Y and Fire button (two different sets of punch tools) another
upgraded / changed (with 3 new clear ears) large top clear 3M plastic cover for the main PCB board punch tooling and
smaller top clear 3M cover for the fire button PCB’s punch tooling, we will
require Min. sets of the Gold
CX24 board sets per sale.

The New Best
CX24 Upgrade matched set of 3 PCBs (all Gold
Main X / Y PCB and two fire button Gold
PCBs) CB103154 $15.50
per set (Min. order 2 sets)

Best
Atari Information Tip:The Atari CX24 dual fire
button Joystick will work on all Atari game consoles and Atari 8 bit computers
(and other brand game consoles / 8 bit computers of the same era that use the same Atari Joystick DB-9
Pin outs) with the normal right angle BD-9
Male Joystick input connector. It will also work on all Atari ST
/ Mega / MegaSTE / TT / Falcon computers, but requires an internal modification be done inside the Atari CX24
Joystick. Contact us for the details.

Bests
CX24 Gold
Board set Installation Instructions

Tools
required:

Phillip
screwdriver

Needle nose
pliers

Small
flashlight

If you are upgrading two stock Atari CX24
Joysticks, Bests suggestion is to upgrade one of the CX24 Joysticks with the
Best CX24 Gold
upgrade board set. Then do a side by side comparison of the upgraded
Gold Lifetime CX24 Joystick with the stock CX24
Joystick playing some different Atari games.

There two basic steps to
install the Best CX24 Gold
upgrade board set. The easer fire button replacement procedure and the possible
harder Main X / Y PCB board replacement.

A
strong suggestion: Before
you buy (place an order for) any Best CX24 Gold
rebuild / upgrade kits, you should 1st use the instructions below to
try to remove the Atari CX24 Joystick Mushroom shaped black handles from your
existing CX24 Joystick shafts. The Atari CX24 black plastic handles are
pressed on (friction fit) to the center metal shaft. When they are 1st
pressed onto the CX24 center metal shaft some 20 to 25+ years ago, many handles
just slipped onto the metal shafts with no problem. Some handles had to be
mechanically pressed on the CX24 center metal shafts. We have found that some of
the CX24 black handle plastic center shaft holes have shrunk a little (onto the
metal center shaft) and have almost bonded the Mushroom shaped black handles to
the center metal shaft. So removing the CX24 handle off the shaft can be a
possible problem. If you do damage / destroy any CX24 black mushroom handles
doing the removal process below, you can order some replacement CX24 handles at
the same time you order your Best CX24 Joystick Gold
upgrade kits.

Over the years, our 34+
Atari Super tech has developed a simple removal method for the Atari CX24
Mushroom handles off the center metal shaft, that most Atari people all of the
world, can do with minimum items required.

You will need a desk with at
least two sliding drawers and chair. Start with a fully assembly Atari CX24
Joystick. Open a middle and top desk drawers. Put the inside bottom (under
side of the mushroom round handle) and bottom edges of the handle on the middle
top edge of the middle drawer and the top edge of the CX24 handle on the bottom
edge of the top sliding draw. Then slowly close both disk drawers trapping the
mushroom shaft between the upper bottom edge of the top sliding drawer and the
top edge of the middle sliding drawer. Next set in the chair and put both of
your feet on the top and middle closed drawers front faces (to keep both sliding
desk drawers for pulling out) and with both of your hands, pull on the body of
the CX24 Joystick straight back to try to pull off the pressed on CX24 handle.
Sometimes the CX24 handles will slide of the metal shaft with little effort and
sometimes you may destroy / damage the mushroom handle because it is bonded
itself to the metal shaft years ago. If you have a properly equipped shop or
have access to one, you can use a padded vise to try to remove the CX24 handle.
If you have a good penetrating oil / fluid, you might soak metal shaft /
mushroom handle over night and give is another try a day latter.

One Atari Tech tipthat helps to remove hard to remove CX24
black stuck on handles. Take a hair drier
(set on highest heat setting) and heat up the bottom black tapered cone (as you
are spinning the cone around to evenly heating it up, hot to the touch) shaped part of the black mushroom plastic
handle then again place the
heated CX24 handle between the disk drawers, then try to pull the CX24
handle off again.

1.Turn over the CX24 Joystick and remove the two Phillips screws off the
back case.

2.Press on both orange fire buttons until they bottom out on the inner dome
contact and hold them down. You must press each fire button very straight in,
any slight up or down pressure on the side of the orange fire button will cause
them to pop off / out of the CX24 top case holding slots

3.As you slowly remove the back CX24 back case
look at the top of the case where the CX24 cable comes into the top and bottom
CX24 case half's. Look at the top of the inside bottom case, you will a
see half round / "U" shaped opening where the cable black strain relief sits
into. On the Top inside case you will see a half square opening.
Check the CX24 cable black strain relief as it goes into the CX24 case half's.
You will see a mating square notch on one side of the CX24 strain body and a "U"
shaped opening on the opposite side. When you close up the CX24 case
half's, make sure the cable strain relief different notches (half square and
half "U") are in the right locations in the top and bottom CX24 cases half's.
If they are not, you will have a hard time trying the get the top and bottom CX24
case half's properly closed up after you have done the internal Gold
PCB upgrade. Now set the CX24 bottom case down.

4.Things to note (document or take pictures of) on the inside of the CX24
Joystick before you proceed:

·The exact
direction of the +
shaped clear Joystick X / X dome contact actuator’s 4 clear arms are located
over each of the CX24 old PCB dome contacts.

·Remove the two
CX24 orange Fire buttons with the conical shaped fire button springs and set
aside.

·On a piece of
paper (or take pictures of) note the side tapered / notched shape (also compare to the new Gold
fire PCB’s) and direction the 2 fire button small PCB’s that are inserted /
slide into the inside of CX24 Top case in their left and right side holding
slots. Next note how the Molex spring metal contacts (on the wires) are
slide onto each side of the notched in fire button PCB’s. Next note how
the 3 different colored wires (with the Molex spring clips) are installed on the
right and left sides of each of the CX24 fire button PCB’s. Also note how the 3
color coded wires are routed to the left and right Fire Button PCB locations (if
you mix up the color code wires on the CX24 fire button PCB’s during reassembly,
it will change how the few Atari 7800 games that require two independent fire
buttons will act. So we suggest you only change out / upgrade each fire button PCB one at
a
time.

·You will also
have match this same fire button wire harness routing around / behind each of
the fire button PCB’s, to make sure you do not damage / pinch or route a wire(s) over
the top of the top screw black internal plastic boss the Philips screw goes into
from the outside when you close up your CX24 Joystick case.

Atari Information Tip: Before you install the new Gold
CX24 fire button PCB's and to prevent installation damage to the new CX24 Gold
Fire Button PCB's, read the reassembly Atari Tech tip below.

·On the CX24
large X / Y PCB board, locate the two small round black plastic alignment studs
/ pins that come thru the top side of the PCB board. They are located about 11
AM and 4 PM positions on the main X / Y PCB board.

·Carefully lift
up the Main CX24 X / Y PCB off the two black plastic alignment studs and then lift the
top edge of the X / Y PCB board at about a 45 degree angle, wire end of the CX24
PCB still inside the CX24 top case. Note or take a picture on how the twisted
color coded CX24 wire bundle / hardness is routed / passes under PCB support
studs and then comes out under the wire end of the X / Y PCB board bottom edge.
Match / note down this exact wire harness routing when you reinstall your new
CX24 all Gold
PCB board. If the new installed Gold
X/Y PCB wire harness routing is not the same as the original wire harness
routing, in most cases you will find the CX24 X / Y PCB board will not lay flat
inside the top CX24 top case and not allow the two black round aligning pins to
come thru the X / Y PCB board. It is also possible to pinch / damage the wire
harness (under the main X / Y PCB board) on one or more of the support studs
under the X / Y PCB board when you are trying to close up your CX24 Joystick.

·On the old
Atari original CX24 X / Y PCB board, it was possible to reinstall the color
coded wires (with the Molex spring slide on contacts) onto the wrong X / Y PCB
bottom tin plated fingers. Best has cured this problem on the upgraded Best
CX24 Gold
X / Y board. All of the CX24 main X / Y PCB wire Gold
plated PCB fingers now have etched in wire color codes on them. If the New Best
CX24 X / Y PCB board edge card Gold
plated finger does not have a color code etched into that finger (far left and
far right CX24 edge card fingers) do not install a CX24 color coded wire on it.
A safe method of installing the new Best CX24
Gold
X / Y PCB board, is to lay it on top of old CX24 stock X / Y PCB board (inside
the CX24 top case) with the wires still installed and one by one remove the
bottom color coded wire with the Molex spring chip and then slide the same wire
/ clip onto the above Top Gold
X / Y PCB board Gold
finger. Installing the wires this way, you will get the right directions
each Molex spring clip faces on the same top
Gold
finger

5.Remove the CX24 metal shaft with the clear + actuator on it and start the
CX24 Upgrade.

6. When you get to
replacing the CX24 stock 3 PCB's with the Best all Gold
upgraded versions, you may find that some of the Molex spring clips on the
different colored CX24 internal wire harness wires may have a loose slide on fit onto
the new Best Gold PCB boards. Either the
Molex slide on metal spring clip has lost some of its tension / clamping force
over the last 20+ years or the old Atari CX24 PCB thickness were over sized and opened up
/ bent the Molex spring clips open a little. You can fix this loose Molex
spring clip with a pair of needle nose pliers. Just gently clamp down the Molex
metal clip / body and with a little force to squeeze down on metal clip just a little.
It is very easy to over squeeze the Molex clip and collapse the clip flat (if do
this, just solder that collapsed clip to the mating circuit Gold
pad / finger). So it is best to under squeeze the metal clip, try it on
the PCB board finger
and squeeze it again in small steps until it has a tight slide on fit again. When you get
to installing the Best left and right Gold
fire button
PCB boards, because of the clear dome cavity bottom plastic sheet and the top
clear plastic cover, the thickness of the Best Gold
fire button PCB
are just a little thicker than the stock Atari CX24 Fire button PCBs. The old stock CX24 fire buttons PCB just slide into
the inside of the CX24 top inner case holding slots. But the thicker Best Gold
fire buttons will require a little more pressure to slide them in and fully seat
them into their CX24 Top case plastic holding slots.

Then just reverse the disassembly process when you are done with
the CX24 Gold upgrade.

Some
Atari CX24 tech tips during reassembly process.

1. When inserting the
slighter thicker (because of the top clear sheet cover and dome cavity clear
middle sheet) Gold
Fire PCB boards into there left and right side holding slots into the CX24 top case, angle the new
Gold fire button
(with the wires attached)
at about a 15 to 20 degree angle when inserting them into the front and back rectangular
black holding slots. Make sure the bottom front edge (of the Gold
fire button PCB edge) and the clear top and middle cover plastic sheets bottom
edges / lips are over / behind the front edge / lip of the front rectangular black holding
slot, then move the top edge of the fire button to the upright (90 degree)
position before pushing down on the Gold fire button into the hold
slots. If you do at straight in (top down) insertion of the Gold
fire button PCB boards into the front and back holding slots, there is a very very good chance
you will catch the bottom edge / lip of the clear top (on the top of the front
rectangular holding slot top front edge) and middle plastic sheets and you will
push up / wrinkle / squeegee up these two plastic sheets along the top front surface of the Gold
fire button PCB as you are pushing the Gold
fire button PCB down into the holding slot. This will defeat the Engineering design for both of the
clear plastic sheets / covers. It will also cause the new Gold
fire buttons to fail early instead of lasting a lifetime worth of use. If
you do start to push up / wrinkle the clear sheets during installation, stop
inserting the fire button PCB, pull it up and smooth down the 2 clear
plastic sheets flat again and retry inserting the fire button PCB again.

2. The final closing up
of the CX24 Joystick may require an extra set of hands to hold the fire buttons
down / compressed in and make sure the U and flat aligning notches on the CX24 cable strain
relief are in the right locations as you close up the top and bottom CX24 cases.

3. As you are putting on
the CX24 back / bottom case onto the top case, check to make sure the X / Y PCB
board is on the two aligning black studs, the clear plastic
X / Y actuator 4 legs
are centered over the 4 Gold
dome contacts.
Note:
on the clear actuator plastic piece, all of the legs / arms are the same length
/ symmetrical, so it does not matter which of the 4 arms over located over each
of the 4 Gold dome contacts. Basically the actuator plastic piece is not
keyed to a single position it must be installed in.

4. Before you install the two screws into back CX24 case, use a small flashlight to double check there are no fire buttons
wires laid over the top internal black screw hole internal plastic threaded stud / boss,
as viewed thru
the top black case top screw hole.

Best CX24 Information Tip: We
upgraded about 30+ Atari CX24 Joysticks with the new Best lifetime Gold
board sets for final burn in testing. We had a lot of different Atari people run different tests and
play Atari games using the new upgraded Gold
CX24 Joysticks. A couple of the more sensitive Atari testers noticed that
one or two of the Upgraded Gold
CX24 Joysticks, did not have the normal tactical feed back mild internal click
in one or more directions when the upgraded CX24 handle was released. Our
31+ Atari Super Tech studied the problem and found out why this happens.
He said the clear plastic X / Y star shaped
actuator had one or more of the legs / arms bent up (away from the dome
contact). On a normal / good CX24 clear plastic actuator, you can put a
steal straight edge (use as a test tool) on top of the X / Y arms and the 4 arms would be perfectly
flat. This actuator raised arm problem can be caused by several different
reasons. The old Atari non used bad CX24 Joystick set in a box with
something pressing on the mushroom handle pushing it off center location for years and
years and the X / Y actuator was bent internally and put a permanent bend /
memory into the
CX24 actuator arm(s). The old failing CX24 Joystick was man handled /
abused (used
more and more force on the CX24 handle to get it work properly as the X / Y done
contacts failed) by the Atari
user and permanently bent / damaged one or more of the CX24 actuator arms. Unlike the
Atari CX40 Joystick inner white handles which does show over stress white lines in the
CX40 inner white joystick handle material when they are abused, the newer clear
CX24 actuator plastic material does not show any white stress lines in the clear
plastic when they are abused, they just bend out of it normal / original shape
and can only detected with a straight metal edge test.
The last reason, when the the new clear actuator was 1st molded, when it was
ejected from the plastic mold, it hung up on the plastic mold and put a
permanent slight bend in the actuator arm(s). You never notice this slight bent
actuator arm(s) problem on a stock failing CX24 Joystick, you would just put more
pressure on the mushroom handle on the bent actuator arm(s) to get the CX24 Joystick to
go into the direction you wanted it to go.

Atari CX24 Tech Tip:
Your new upgraded CX24 Gold
Joystick now works better than when your Atari CX24 Joystick was brand New!
But you notice you do not get the normal tactical feed back bounce back feeling in one or
more X / Y directions once you have tested your upgraded Gold
CX24 Joystick. You can correct this minor problem. Take the CX24 back case off.
Push on the top of CX24 black handle up so the clear plastic X / Y actuator arms are
lifted off the new Gold
X / X PCB board. Locate the CX24 actuator clear arm(s) that you are
not giving you the new tactical feed back feel. Cold push that Actuator arm down
toward the bottom of the Mushroom handle tapered cone /
Gold
X / Y PCB board until you see some minor
white stress lines show up in the Actuator arm close to the center hub. Then let go of that slight
bend down actuator arm. Then take your hair dryer (on high setting) and
heat up the bend down actuator arm until the minor white stress lines disappear.
Note:
in some cases you may have to hold the newly bent down actuator arm in the
slightly bent down position during the heating process. Sometimes the bent
up (before heating and bending down) actuator arm will have memory in the
plastic and when you heat up to remove the minor white stress lines, the bent
down actuator arm will return back to its original slightly bent up position. Reassemble the CX24 and retest it for the tactical feed feeling.

The Pro-Stick Joystick is like a standard CX40 Joystick but with a Red
Base/Black Top, Red Joystick boot, Left or Right side dual Red Fire buttons on the base
(for Left or Right handed People), Molded Plastic Handle Grip with Top Fire button too and
Joystick cable comes out of the center bottom of the Pro-Stick!

CB103045 $7.95

Best
Electronics Latest and Hottest33.33X Upgrade to an Atari 23+ Year old Atari
CX40 Joystick Internal Design!

Now
shipping third generation Best CX40 all Gold PCB boards with even thicker pcb
board material and now fully Gold
plated dome contacts

Best recently sold
out of the Stock Atari made CX40 Joystick internal Printed Circuit
Boards (PCB) we acquired from the Local Atari Sunnyvale Warehouses
when we bought out the Atari parts division.

Best
has been selling this basic replacement Atari CX40 Internal PCB board for some
21+ years now. The basic design and manufacturing techniques used to make this
replacement Atari CX40 internal PCB board are based on an Atari original 1979
(contact wires on 2 sides of the PCB board) and the latter 1981 Atari Engineering
redesign (contact wires on the right side) and early PCB board manufacturing
techniques of the same era, which have not changed much over all of the
different designs and production runs of this CX40 Internal part. The basic
Idea, was to make the next production run of this Atari CX40 PCB board a little
cheaper each time it was made.

1979 Atari
Original Design 1981 Atari Redesign

Over the years Atari used several Styles / Shapes of this Internal Atari CX40
PCB board (all of then completely interchangeable on the Second generation Atari
CX40 Joystick) with many different styles of metal Dome contact internal
switches and different types of plating on the internal Circuit Traces from Tin,
Nickel to Copper.

Because of Best
Electronics 32+ year experience in the Atari business, we are Very
aware of all of the different Failure
modes of all of the Atari CX40 Internal Joystick parts. The last major Upgrade
Atari Engineering did to the CX40 Joystick was the Upgraded / Beefed up Design
Internal white plastic handle. Click on the Best CX40 Button below to
read up on this Upgraded Atari CX40 Handle. This
Upgraded Atari CX40 Handle helped fix one of the Known problems with the life
expectancy of Atari CX40 Joysticks. But unfortunately the Atari CX40 Internal
PCB board 1979/1981 basic design was never upgraded by Atari Engineering untilNow!

"Your company name is truly fitting. I installed a set of your gold contact circuit boards in a pair of CX40 joysticks. They're fantastic! These
boards are the best thing to happen to the 2600 since the creation of the
console itself! I couldn't be happier with my joysticks now. They're
better than new! Thanks for making such a great product!" Kevin M. of OH

"All I
can say is WOW - - I installed the Upgraded Gold CX40 Internal PCB in a classic
Atari CX40 joystick last night, and immediately after testing it, went and took
apart two other joysticks that worked fine, JUST to replace the boards with
these AMAZING upgrades! I typically prefer the 'EPYX 500 XJ' joysticks,
because of their tactile feel and 'click' that they provide, but with these
Upgraded Gold CX40 Internal PCBs, you can actually FEEL the 'click' and hear
each motion of the joystick in a very satisfying and precise manner! All of my
CX40 joystick rebuilds from now on will be using these Upgraded Gold CX40
Internal PCBs!" James A. of CO

Rodrigo ordered some Atari CX40 Joystick
new Fire buttons, new CX40 Rubber boot and Best exclusive Atari CX40 Joystick
Improved / Upgraded Rebuild kits with the Bests CX40 Gold Lifetime PCB board.
"Last night I installed the new parts on my old joysticks. The upgrade is
remarkable: the "mushy" feeling when pulling the lever and pressing the button
disappeared! I have precision again and I love the "clicky" feeling of the new
gold boards. I feel my joysticks like new again! Thanks!" Rodrigo G. of Brazil

All of the years Best
has been in the Atari parts business, we have seen at least 6 to 8 different
Atari CX40 PCB boards made by different Atari parts Manufactures / Suppliers.
All of them are known to have different Failure rates and type of Failures.

Just some of the different
type of CX40 Internal PCB board failures we have seen over the last 34 years:

One or more of these problems on an Atari CX40 Joystick
Internal PCB board would mean a failure of an Atari CX40 Joystick prematurely.

Using the same Engineering attitude (make a State of the
Art Upgraded Replacement part using State of the Art Materials, State of the Art
Manufacturing Techniques and New Tooling) that Best Electronics used on
the 5200 GoldCX52 Joystick Upgrade Project, we knew we could produce an Improved / Upgraded
Atari CX40 Internal PCB board. Every 5200 owner who Now owns one of these
Best Exclusive
LifetimeGold Upgraded Joysticks will tell you, that the Best
CX52 Gold
Joystick upgrade Cured
the 20+ year problems that have always existed with the Old Atari made CX52
Joysticks.

As part of our initial research for this Best
CX40 PCB upgrade board project, we contacted one of our Oldest Quality Atari
parts suppliers we have been using for 15+ years now and had them run some Life
cycle Tests on the Old Design (1981) Atari CX40 Internal PCB board. In the
Industry it is know as
Mean Time Between Failures
(MTF) or
basically how many cycles a part would run before it failed.

"The
new PCBs are astonishing. I have no regrets about upgrading to this new PCB.
It is superior in every way over the original."Jeff P. of VA

We had our Manufacture run a
MTF Test on what Best Electronics
considered one of the better 1981 designs of Atari PCB boards (pictured above)
we have sold over the years. Their Tests showed that this Atari 1981 designed
New replacement CX40 PCB board, only ran about 150,000 cycles before it
Failed. The original Atari 1981
Engineering Specification on this version Atari CX40 PCB board, called for
minimum MTF
of 1,000,000 cycles.

The BestNew State of the Art New Upgraded
replacement Atari CX40 PCB boards, have
New Upgraded Glass
Epoxy Stronger PCB board base Material,
New100%HardGoldPlated Circuit Traces with
approximately 55%largerGold
trace contact surface area under the dome contact,

larger Internal contact surface area on inside of the
Gold
Plated 4 leg Dome Contacts (4 Leg Dome
contacts are Hard GoldPlated on the inside
of the dome contact surface area and Stainless Steel base material on the
Outside surface) and
State of the Art3M Scotch Brand
Hi Performance Clear Polyester film (2 Layers) covering with escape air channels around the
Gold
dome contacts. This
means each improved larger Gold
plated Best CX40 Doom contact sits in a ridge plastic square cavity with sides
(locking down the side to side and top to bottom movement of the doom contact) on the CX40
PCB with a second 3M Clear cover over the improved
doom contact. This prevents / ends the old Atari CX40 PCB problem of the
Doom contacts walking around the CX40 PCB (causing a CX40 failure) when the old
Atari CX40 clear adhesive cover started to fail. The air chamber relief
channels around each Gold Plated doom cavity prevents the new
3M top Clear cover from bubbling up and failing
(like on the old Atari CX40 PCB design) when each contact is pressed down due to
increased internal air pressure.

Our Manufacture conservatively
Rates this New
State of the Art CX40 Upgraded Best
replacement PCB board at 5,000,000cyclesMTFor approximately a 33.33Xincrease in real world MTF
cycles compared to the above 1981 Atari designed CX40 PCB board that was tested
and prematurely failed.

New Best Gold3rd generation CX40 PCB
board!

Please note on the 3rd generation of the Best
CX40 Gold boards, the basic PCB color changed from a light yellow (above
picture) to a light green color PCB material.

Essentially the New BestGold CX40 PCB board should be a
lifetime version CX40 Joystick PCB board. The Atari CX40 internal
handle will fail before this New2015 second generation State of the Art Best
CX40 Gold
PCB board.

Over the years Atari used many different style of Dome
contacts on the old CX40 PCB boards. Round with top dimple, Round without top
dimple, ¾ round / D shape, several different styles of 3 Leg Round Dome Contacts
with different top dimples sizes, were just some of the different types of Dome
contacts used. Many of these Dome contacts had a Tactical Feed back
(click sound) when they were activated and some were completely Silent when you
used the Atari CX40 Fire button and Joystick handle functions.

Emmanuel
D. of FranceEmmanuel ordered some new Atari 2600
replacement parts and 2 of Best exclusive CX40 Gold 3rd Gen. Lifetime PCB
boards.
"Wow this is incredible ! I just received the parcel. It took less than 5 days
for it to arrive in France. This is lightning fast :) And It took me only
10 minutes to replace the old PCB with the new 3rd Gen Gold PCB inside my CX40
Joystick. The wiring color labels made the upgrade very easy. The result
is beyond what I expected. My CX40 joystick is better than new and very precise.
The tactical feedback is great and the click sound so pleasing ! Thanks !"

Luis B. of Canada Luis ordered some of Best's 3rd
Generation CX40 Joystick Gold Lifetime PCBs for his bad Atari CX40 Joysticks.
Right after he received his Best order, he ordered two more of the CX40 Gold
Lifetime PCBs. "I
received my CX40 gold PCBs and these are extremely good. I feel like I don’t
have to treat the joystick with overly great care, especially playing games like
Decathlon and Track&Field. I would highly recommend that everyone upgrade at
least one of their joysticks to the gold PCBs. I installed one and will install
the other one asap. Excellent product!"

Tom K. of MNTom purchased one of Best Reconditioned upgraded Light
2600 6 switch console in May with the Rev. 3 Composite Video out mod. He
also exchanged out the two non Atari BP Joysticks for 2 Best CX40 Gold Upgraded
Joysticks with Best's lifetime Gold CX40 PCB boards "Thank you so
much for the Atari! It arrived a few weeks ago in perfect condition and I have
been playing it since. I especially like the upgraded joysticks - they work
great!"

Ryan A. of FL "The upgraded 2600 controller insert and
gold pcbs are great, using them I got my best score in River Raid in over 20
years!"

Mike S. of OR "Playing
games with the upgraded CX40’s is a revelation and the CX78 pad was an
appreciated recommendation… I’ll be after another one in the future. There
will be no more blaming the controllers in my household, that’s for sure."

Our research on different dome contacts found that the
ones with a top dimple were quieter when used inside an Atari CX40 Joystick, but
they actually had less internal contact surface between the inside of the dome
contact (because of the small square surface area of the extended small dimple)
and small circuit trace under the dome contact,

Close up,
underside view of Dome Contacts

Old
Atari 3 leg Dome contact Best larger Gold
plated 4 leg contact

which would mean they would fail sooner. Best choose to
go with a larger 4 leg
Gold
Plated Dome contact to Maximize the contact surface between the
inside of the dome contact and the Newly increased larger surface area on the
mating Gold
plated PCB trace under the dome contact.

The New State of the Art Best Upgraded CX40
Gold PCB
with Gold
Plated 4 leg dome contacts, have a
Good Tactical feed back
feel (Louder click compared to the original Atari CX40 joystick PCBs) on the
Atari CX40 Fire button and Very light Tactical feed back on the Atari CX40
handle action.

The Original 1981 Atari Engineering Specification called
for a Maximum (Dome / Trace) contact resistance of 150 Ohms or less on the CX40
PCB boards. The New BestGold CX40 PCB boards have contact
resistance less than
2 Ohms!

Another built in Upgrade on the
NewBest CX40
GoldPCB
board, is the internal Atari CX40 Wiring sequence Color Codes are now etched into each
connecting tab. So you will never have to look up the CX40 Color Code
wiring sequence and never make
a mistake and wire up a rebuilt Atari CX40 Joystick wrong.

Atari CX40 rebuild Information Tip.
Every two or three hundred CX40 Gold
Rebuild kits with the Best Gold
CX40 board and Atari CX40 handle we send out, one
Atari user will contact us and say, I just rebuilt 10 old Atari CX40
Joysticks with your Gold
CX40
rebuild kits. 7 of the rebuilt CX40 Gold Joysticks work better than new now, but 3 of them
have fire button problems. I have checked the CX40 cable and not found any
problems with it. Help!!!

There are basically
three problems that can cause this CX40 Fire button problem on the new Best
CX40 Gold
PCB. A bad CX40
cable is one of them. The most common problem is the end of the CX40
orange fire button inner stud (the fire button stud that presses on the
top of the Gold
plated dome contact) is mushroomed down (only a couple of thousands of an inch)
from repeated hard pressing on the old fire button on a failing Atari made
CX40 PCB trying to get it to still work. You can usually verify this condition by taking apart your CX40
Joystick with the Gold
CX40 kit in it and removing the CX40 plastic top and manually pressing on
the fire button PCB dome contact and you will find the fire button works
fine. The
Best enhanced version CX40 Gold
PCB has a new upgrade feature that if you do have a mushroomed over fire
button stud, you may have a fire button problem. The Best new CX40 PCB
has a couple of thousands of inch thick plastic sheet / barrier on the top
of the Gold
PCB board that has 5 cavities in it, that each Gold
plated dome contact sets in. This new
feature on the Best Gold version PCB prevents the dome contacts from walking around the PCB board (like the old CX40
PCB Atari dome contacts did as the clear top adhesive cover tape would start
to fail). So the combination of a old Atari CX40 Fire button with a mushroomed over
center plastic stud and the new Best Gold
PCB with the couple of thousands thick dome matrix plastic sheet on top,
prevents the old mushroomed Atari fire button center stud from fully pushing
down the Gold
dome contact the last couple of thousands of an inch to make full contact
with the Gold
CX40 PCB fire button trace.

Old Atari Tech tip.
You can check for this mushrooming over CX40 fire button plastic stud
problem before you order a Best CX40 Gold
Rebuild kit(s), by taking your old CX40 fire button out of the CX40
Joystick(s) you are going to rebuild and look across the bottom edge / ring (the end closest to
the CX40 PCB board) of the old orange fire button from a side view.
The center Orange fire button center plastic stud with a tit / bump on the
end, should sit a couple of thousands of inch abovethe bottom lip of the orange fire button.
If this small orange tit / bump is even or below the orange fire button
bottom lip (as viewed from a side view), it should be replaced. If you
eyes are not that good, use a flat / straight piece of metal (like a knife
or metal ruler) and lay it across the bottom of the Atari CX40 fire button
and next to the fire button center stud. Again check the CX40 fire
button from a side view and see if you can see the tit / bump on the end of
the CX40 fire button center stud above
the bottom edge (just a couple thousands of an inch) of the metal piece you
put across the CX40 fire button diameter, it is a good CX40 fire button.

If you discovered
this Atari CX40 Fire button problem after you received your CX40 Gold
Rebuild kits, there is a quick and
easy fix. Just tape a small spacer or round dot (a couple of thousands of an inch
thick, like a couple of layers of masking tape) on the center top of the fire button dome contact
only and put the CX40 Joystick
back together. In the long run, a new orange fire button will cure this
problem

The third reason why your rebuilt
Gold CX40 Fire button
may not work, is the black plastic support stud (that sits under the
Gold
PCB fire button section and supports the CX40 PCB fire button section)
on the bottom Atari CX40 black Case has been mashed down a couple of thousands
of an inch (usually can not see this problem) from heavy fire button
pressure on the old failing Atari CX40 PCBs before rebuilding. The easy
way to fix this CX40 bottom case problem is again put / tape a small spacer on
the bottom side of the Best Gold
CX40 PCB under fire button dome contact section to raise it up a couple of
thousands of an inch.

Because of
the High Cost of the New
PCB Tooling, New State of the Art Upgraded Materials and
Cost for the
third generation2015 production run of these
New State of the ArtGold
Atari CX40 PCB boards, BestElectronics will require the
following Minimum orders for these
New Atari
Gold
CX40 internal PCB boards and upgraded CX40 Rebuild kits.

Howard Z. of CanadaHoward ordered 2 of Best CX40
Joysticks upgraded with Best CX40 Gold lifetime PCB board. "Your
joysticks arrived today and they are AMAZING. People can talking about the leaf
switch sticks or micro-switched sticks, but yours are truly the best. The short
throw, and the responsiveness are unparalleled. It's like everything you
loved about the old CX-40, but without the weaknesses of the old CX-40. Thank
you so much! I am sure I will be ordering more products from you."

Faraz
H. of IL On
his 1st Atari order to Best, Faraz ordered one CX40 Joystick
upgraded with Bests CX40 Gold
Lifetime PCB and one non

Atari made Pro-Stick
Joystick. Upon placing his 2nd Atari order with Best.
"I
am very pleased with my New Atari CX40 Upgraded
Gold
Joystick ! I would like to order another one."

Jim R. of MD Jim ordered some new Atari 2600
Joystick and Atari 5200 Joystick replacement ports. He also got two new
Atari CX40 Joysticks that had been upgraded with Best CX40 Lifetime Gold
PCB boards. "I received the joysticks today. I can
honestly say I am blown away by the quality of these sticks! Does the world
know you sell these? Anyone who has any interest in 2600 gaming would be
thrilled to know these are available! Your CX40 Joystick upgraded with best
lifetime gold PCB board are nothing short of spectacular !!! You've
reinvigorated my gaming experience! My advise to anyone contemplating buying
something from eBay... Don't bother... Go with BEST!!!!"